Front gardens

[Pseud]

I’m getting increasingly embarrassed of my front garden, and want to revamp it - but struggling to know what to do. We have a lovely south west facing back garden, which we have put a lot of work into, and all of our main rooms are at the back of the house. I barely see the front garden apart from when I walk in and out of the house, so it’s hard to care that much about it apart from wanting it to look tidy and not need a lot of looking after, as I don’t notice it needs attention in the same way as I do for the back.

It’s north east facing, about 8m by 10m excluding the driveway. Currently smallish lawn squares with a path through the middle, with a privet hedge along the front low wall, which I actively dislike, and a border that has a few shrubs. Brick paved path and driveway.

All the online garden design ideas seem to focus on the back garden, so really keen to hear what people have done with their front gardens to get some inspiration!

Should say, the hedge is variegated, and has partially reverted, which is why I don’t like it. Don’t object to hedges in general!

I don’t have a front garden but I was thinking the other day that if I did I would try and have plants that were scented for different seasons: Christmas box (Sarcococca), Daphne, maybe hyacinths, lilac if room for it, honeysuckle...
Obviously you’d need to check for varieties happy in shade.

That's quite a large front garden. I do always admire a front garden with an ornamental tree - maybe a flowering cherry or a strawberry tree. But presently I'm in live with sumac trees and lilac, so I'd be planting those.

Your privet hedge sounds pointless and dull. I'd be inclined to pull it out and make a proper wide border along the front, maybe sculpt it so it is an interesting shape,and fill it with plants that will tolerate the lack of direct sun.

A path that bisects a garden only looks good if it is very formal and regular in design. Formal designs are hard to keep looking great, so I would actually consider moving the path somehow.

Given you won't get lots of sun for much of the day, I'd be looking at some cheap shrubbery too - hollies, small low growing conifers, red Robin's. And then bulbs for spring time.

To get specific front garden design ideas, look on Pinterest by searching key words. Lots of ideas.

Our front garden is north facing and dealing with it was the thing that made our house feel 'finished'. Our house is a Victorian terrace and doesn't have a drive but it does have a tiled path, used to have a hedge at one boundary and had a horrible grass patch taking up the bulk of the space. We took out the hedge that ran alongside the path and replaced with a low fence. At the same time we constructed a narrow raised bed where we have heathers and bulbs. The original path was in an awful state so we had that levelled and replaced using the same style pattern but chose more modern colours. The square to the right of the path has had huge raised beds constructed in an L-shape so they run alongside the path and the pavement (we also built a new fence at the front which is lower than what used to be there and less ugly). The grassy patch has been sacrificed and replaced with slate chippings, we've installed a water butt in the far corner and a metal bike storage shed on that side too.

The planting in the raised beds has been planned out by me i.e. not someone who knows much about plants, too be low maintenance, a variety of heights and flowering times. We've got a mixture of thistles, aliums, grasses (stipa), lavenders that hang over on the path side, echinops, agastache, masterworts, hebes, a passionflower that grows up and along the side fence behind the bike storage, fleabane and various other things I can't remember. I love the front garden now, especially once we get to April and it's bursting with life. Getting rid of the mossy grass was so worth it!

Thanks all! I definitely like the idea of an ornamental tree, or at least one that gives some colour, shady gardens seem very green and I love a bit of colour!

The lawn survives pretty well considering, it’s a little away from the house so gets a small amount of sun I guess. I’d love some kind of shade loving climber to have against the front wall.

We have two ornemental trees and a cottage garden .
If it is shady i would probabably work with that . Possibly easy to care for structuaral shade lovers such as ferns for example which look amazing as they unfurl .

Flowering cherry or crab apple look good and the latter has intrest for many months .

My front garden is also North facing.
I have chosen mostly evergreens and lots of winter and spring flowering shrubs, Sarcococca, Daphne, Quince (wall trained), Skimmia, Hellebores.
It looks smart all year round, not too high maintenance and lovely scents by the front door in winter/spring.
I think evergreen planting is good for the front as you have coverage year round.
Perhaps lose the grass in exchange for pea shingle?

Thanks again - keen on crab apple I think. Just browsing evergreens, and like the look of loropetalum, as well as daphne and sarcoccoca and skimmia japonica.

A house near me has a N facing front garden of similar size to yours.

They have a viburnum bodnantense that delights the whole street when it's in flower, which (iirc) is very early in the year. It has a lovely scent that you can smell even from the other side of the road and is a real harbinger of spring. I walk the long way back from the shop just so I can smell it.

I've always said I'd plant one, but have never got round to it.

Hydrangea grow well in shade. Ferns are beautiful too. Daphne is evergreen maybe some box balls. Some ornamental trees, you I don’t have to have just one and everything and actually having a number of the same thing would probably look more cohesive. I think I’d be tempted to gravel areas too, so you don’t have to drag a lawnmower around.

I had the same problem with my front garden, and I hated gardening out the front on show to the street. In the end we moved house and specifically looked for somewhere that didn’t have a front garden (among other things). We now have a few evergreen shrubs by in on our front windows and it’s wonderful not having to do anything. If we’d had stayed at our old house we would’ve changed it and made it more low maintenance with gravel and evergreen shrubs that kind of get on with it by themselves.

I now just have a back garden, a little secret garden which I love spending time in!

My front garden is N facing and possibly a bit smaller than yours. We got rid of the lawn - weekly lawn mowing dragging the mower round to the front just wasn't going to happen. It's now mainly shrubs, with gravel paths.

Central tarmac path with buried edging stones wasn't going to be esay to get rid of, so we arranged plants that would spill over it alternately, turning it into a slightly narrower sinuous path.

We tried to make sure it looked good in winter, and let the other seasons take care of themselves.

Things that I really enjoy in the garden are: Weeping crab apple "Red Jade" (but the "apples" are slightly smaller than peas - however the blackbird likes them); Magnolia stellata; Pernettya - a red berried and a white berried one plus a male for pollination - the birds don't like them, so they really make an impact with the berries; Skimmia ?Reevesiana - the one that is self fertile, so is permanently covered with big red berries, and with highly scented white flowers in about April; three roses - a perpetual dark red flowered one left by the previous owner, an apricot one (Alistair Stella Gray) over the archway over the front gate, and a red and white striped Rosa Mundi; winter jasmine, starts flowering in late autumn and is still flowering.

I've also got wild-type daffodils, lily of the valley, Cyclamen hederifolium and sweet woodruff giving round level flower cover at various times of the year.

As Lakie says Viburnum bodnantense is good - flowers on bare stems from late autumn and is still in flower now, and very powerful scent. I have three in the back garden so didn't feel the need for another in the front - unlike you, we use the back as our main entrance, so the front needs only to be visually good.

Just ordered a large Sarcococca confusa, as gardening express had them on special offer - I normally opt for small plants and then try to be patient, but have gone big because these are quite slow growing. This’ll go by the house which is almost full shade.

And making plans to dig out the hedge, with a few options from above of what could replace it along the wall line. It gets a bot more sun, so more choice here. Thanks again!

Ours has some nice shrubs including some that attract bees and birds. I like to watch them from the window. We have a buddleia, cistus, yucca, and some ornamental grasses. I'm going to put another cistus in as it's beautiful and flowers for ages. We have a small lawn which ideally I would replace with something like a clover lawn but it's less of a pain now we have a cordless mower.

For a climber maybe try a californian lilac - you can get climbing varieties

I’d plant some wisteria round the front of the house, and put a mature camellia in the middle of the lawn. For the hedge to be honest, I’d replace it but with something like Portuguese Laurel or red robin.